Landscape of layered rock formations at Badlands National Park. A desert under a sky with sparse clouds at sunset.
Elopement in Glacier National Park. A couple close together, foreheads touching in a romantic moment. The woman is wearing a lace dress with lace details on the sleeves, and the man is dressed in a white shirt. The background is blurred with trees.
Glacier National Park engagement session. A man and woman stand near a leafless tree by a lake, with mountains in the background. The woman is leaning against the tree, and the man is touching her face, both sharing an intimate moment.
Black and white photo of a girl on a skateboard holding hands with a boy at a skatepark, casting their shadows on the ground.

FILM + DIGITAL photographer based in MONTANA

documenting the real, the creative & the messy

A couple in Montana. A bride in a wedding dress sitting in a wheelchair with a groom kneeling and hugging her outdoors near a body of water, black and white photo.

IT WON’T BE PICTURE-PERFECT, BUT IT WILL BE PERFECT FOR YOU

i take pictures like i’m writing a story…

i want to find a way to describe you & all your little moments in pictures and then box them up into a gallery uniquely yours.

i want to capture the textures of your life

i don’t just want to photograph you— i want to be inspired by you.

it’s bare feet running in the grass & the shadow of lace from your veil on the best day ever.

Child running barefoot on grass beside a stone border, with a dress visible
A black and white photo of a couple embracing and kissing outdoors with a mountain landscape in the background.

it’s messy hair and perfect sunsets; stormy afternoons followed by golden streaks of light.

it’s the sound of babies laughing and grandparents choking back tears at your wedding ceremony.

it’s all the little things in between— the subtle human moments that make up the picture of what it means to be alive & be you.

and they deserve to be noticed.

A signature for "Kirsten Ariel"

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schedule

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create

A couple sharing a kiss in a grassy field with mountains and dark storm clouds in the background somewhere in Kalispell, Montana.
A handwritten poem from a journal.

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wild

poetic

imperfect

dreamy

edgy

raw

observational

FOR weddings, couples, families & portraits

Close-up of cracked desert or dried mud surface with brown and dark crevices in Yellowstone National Park.